Sales of Blu-Ray and DVD-HD — two train-wrecks masquerading as products — have been disappointing. No one seems to want to buy a box whose selling price has been doubled through the inclusion of “security” measures that treat the box’s owner as a potential criminal. What’s more, the actual performance of the devices is reportedly poor, the picture just not as sharp as promised (standard DVD pictures are substantially degraded through a series of superfluous digital-analog-digital-analog conversion steps meant to frustrate home copyists).
The competing formats, Sony Corp.-backed (6758.T: Quote, NEWS, Research) Blu-ray and Toshiba Corp.-championed (6502.T: Quote, NEWS, Research) HD-DVD, aim to provide better picture quality and interactive features, but some early viewers have been underwhelmed.
“Neither format is selling well or at the level I had expected. I had expected early adopters to step up and other retailers have had the same experience,” said Bjorn Dybdahl, president of San Antonio, Texas-based specialty store Bjorn’s.
(via /.)